cliff, now both sides in this standoff seem no closer to a deal. the public rhetoric, though, is ramping up, while the private talks seem to be at a standstill over the same tax hangups. >> the president and i had a frank conversation about how far apart we are. >> he has made abundantly clear both in his policy presentations and in what he has said to you and to the american public that he is willing to make tough choices on the spending side. >>> the overseas markets though, don't seem to be too concerned about the lack of progress. stocks actually are mostly up, in fact. >> there's all kinds of polls out there. we have an abc news poll, fox news poll. i think overwhelmingly, the majority of americans support president obama on raising the taxes on the wealthiest. but i thought this was interesting. a majority of republicans think cuts to entitlement programs, should be made now, even if it's tough on families. but democrats think they should be continued to be funded at their current levels, even if it means passing on trillions of dollars of de